Hello Book Bums families!
This week in the newsletter we are thinking about storytelling. We share some famous spooky stories as well as an idea for becoming a good storyteller. Dr. Christy also presents a storytelling conundrum. She needs your help to decide if a picture book goes too far with its story.
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Word of the Week
wry (ri) adjective/describing word - cleverly or grimly humorous
Though many people enjoyed his wry sense of humor, some thought his jokes were too dark or harsh.
Literary Calendar
- The last Friday in October is Frankenstein Friday.
- This day celebrates Mary Shelley and her famous novel.
- Did you know that this story came to life because of a writing challenge? On a trip with other writers (including Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron) and stuck indoors due to bad weather, Byron challenged the group to write scary stories to entertain each other. 18 year old Shelley's contribution was Frankenstein.
- When you hear the word Frankenstein you may picture a tall, greenish creature with a square head and bolts in his neck. That is actually Frankenstein's monster. The title character is the doctor who brings the monster to life.
- If you want to deep dive into this famous spooky story, try this podcast episode from Norton Library.
From our Bookshelves
I Want My Hat Back, by Jon Klassen, is about a bear who lost his hat. This book has earned 4.7 out of 5 stars. It has won several awards, including:
Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book: Awarded in 2012
E.B. White Read-Aloud Award: Won in 2012
Original Art Medal: Silver winner in 2012
ALSC Notable Children's Books: Commended in 2012
CCBC Choices: Selected in 2012
Horn Book Fanfare: Selected in 2011
Best Illustrated Children's Books: Selected in 2011
Publishers Weekly Best Books: Picture book selection in 2011
BUT . . . the haters are hating on this one BIG time.
I would certainly describe this as a wry piece of writing. It’s a book about a situation that’s resolved in what I had considered an amusing way. In truth, I have not read this one with a child yet. That could change things a bit, but I doubt it.
Originally, I had considered lots of teachable moments with I Want My Hat Back.
Varied colored sentences are used to show who’s talking. This can lead into a conversation about other ways authors show who’s doing the talking (e.g., paragraph breaks, speech bubbles)
Ellipses ( . . . ) are used to show an interruption in thinking.
The color red is used to indicate anger or guilt.
The use of all capital letters is used to indicate shouting.
Punctuation marks are used to punctuate emotion. (YOU. YOU STOLE MY HAT.)
Readers must infer meaning using facts from the text and their own background knowledge to make an educated guess about what happened.
It could launch a great discussion about indicators someone might be lying.
There’s an opportunity to discuss irony because there’s an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects, and the result could be considered amusing.
I want to know what you think! PLEASE use this link to watch a short video reading of the book, then email me a thumbs up or a thumbs down.
Is this a clever book or is it unseemly?
Tips for Raising Readers and Writers
Did you realize that a prerequisite for being able to write a good story is being able to tell a good story?
I always heard it said that everyone should have one good joke and one good story they could tell at a party. I’ve got mine. Do you?
It would be a cool family challenge to have everyone come up with a signature joke and a signature story they’ve perfected. You can critique one another—reminding kids that being coachable is a great asset.
Speaking of a good story, I’ve got one for you for this Halloween season. It’s said that some reporters were invited to spend the night in the crypt of the old Frankenstein castle in Germany. Many believed that every hundred years Dr. Frankenstein's monster would come back to life to roam the area in search of his slayer. It just happened to be the 100th anniversary, and the BBC Broadcast thought it’d make a great story.
Though the reporters didn't know it, the place had been rigged with some scary props. One reporter really thought there was a monster after him, and it was all caught in this 1952 recording from a BBC Broadcast. It’s reeeally spooky to hear the real fear in the reporter’s voice. Would you do it? Would you spend the night in the Frankenstein castle?
This castle, overlooking the city of Darmstadt in Germany, may have been an inspiration for Mary Shelley when she wrote her 1818 Gothic novel Frankenstein.
Tips for Families
If you’re feeling a little lost during this election season, and you need a bit of a pick-me-up - here it is. This is a version of the national anthem that makes me remember what a great nation we can be. The song is performed vocally by Chris Stapleton and is signed (ASL) by deaf actor Troy Kotsur. The recording is from Super Bowl LVII in 2023. Enjoy!
Practical Grammar
If you’ve heard someone say, “Well, I could care less . . . “ it may have struck you as odd for if one could care less, it means that s/he cared at least a bit, right?
If what you mean is that you don’t care about it at all, your statement should be, “Well, I couldn’t care less . . .”
Tips for Teachers
Now that the Science of Reading is gaining ground, “heart words” have become commonplace in American classrooms. The idea is that words can be orthographically mapped in students’ memories for automatic, accurate retrieval when we teach kids the expected parts of their spellings along with the unexpected parts.
A sweet friend purchased a t-shirt for me that says, “I teach kids to read,” and I just love it!
The letters in the word read are separated into phoneme boxes, one box for each sound. There’s a heart under the e-a to indicate that this is an irregular spelling that we must “learn by heart.” Here’s the thing. The spelling of the long e sound with an e-a IS an expected spelling of that sound. There shouldn’t be a heart there.
I know. I know. If the kids haven’t been taught the two vowels together rule (At Book Bums we say, “When we have two vowels together, the first one says its name.”), then it’s a “heart word” because the kids don’t know the rule yet. However, instead of taking the time to teach kids to memorize the “irregular” spelling (for now) of the word read, why don’t we just teach them the rule that will apply to hundreds of words?
Let’s teach the rules faster, please.
At Book Bums, we can equip typically developing first graders to decode most any word in a kids’ chapter book in twenty-five weeks or less.
I’ve done it, haven’t I? I’ve taken a wonderful gift and Dr. Christy’d it to death. So sorry!
Just for Fun
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